Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Friday, July 6, 2007
It would be easier to list product that don’t contain any type of phthalates. This Class of toxic chemical is being found in nearly everything that is tested for its presence.
In our environment everything from literally, from below the ground to the air we breathe, up to the clouds held in that air, contain some amount of phthalates.
Building materials, all types of flooring PVC pipes and even household dust contains phthalates. Kitchen utensils and packaging of all types of products that contact both you and your food are found in our environment.
In hospitals, besides the building materials and plastic pipes phthalates are found in blood-bags, medical tubing ans all sorts of medical equipment. This is especially disturbing when considering people in hospitals generally have compromised health situations thereby perhaps making them more susceptible to the dangers of this class of chemical.
Cosmetic products are replete with phthalates. Products such as perfumes, hair spray and nail polish. Women between the ages of 20-40 years were found to have the highest levels of phthalates of any group tested. This is especially disturbing when considering woman in that age group in the main child bearing years. Given the fact that phthalates are endocrine disruptor and estrogen stimulators; no wonder birth defects of males reproductive systems are on the rise.
Also commonly found in foods, phthalates are easily absorbed by fatty foods such as cheese and meat. Restrictions placed on plastics contain phthalates coming in contact with food were meant to reduce the exposure and absorption of these chemicals. But, these chemicals are entering food from a variety of ways, not just from being wrapped in plastics.
Phthalates are being found in food before processing, suggesting they are so prevalent in our environment there may be no way to escape them.
Vast amounts of products containing phthalates plastics such as PVC, toiletries and cosmetics are being literally washed down the drain into sewage and wastewater systems. From wastewater it then goes on to rivers, estuaries and the sea. Ocean habitat, marine mammals and everything in the middle are being affected and poisoned by runoff tainted with these chemicals.
Plastics being incinerated are distributed into the atmosphere where they are then rained down upon the oceans and land. Crops are being irrigated with water that contains phthalates and then is run through pipes that contain them. Crops are then harvested and fed to animals that we then eat that are processed in plants that use equipment that cnatinas phthalates…We are getting the picture!
There isn’t any way for me to put into words the totality of this situation, other than saying “it’s even in our urine”.
How can we protect ourselves from the ubiquitous phthalate? One government website suggests we vacuume regularly. How ridiculous!
Labels: Feminization, Nonylphenolthoxylates, Ocean Habitat, PVC, Phthalates, Plastic, Poison, Sea Mammals, Sewage, TDS, endocrine, estorgen
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Phthalates are Literally Everywhere
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
PLASTICS.
According to a UN report plastic debris entering the ocean could be as high as 24 million pieces per day. 20% of that plastic comes from ships and offshore platforms, the rest is blown in from or washed off of land.
Plastic debris is now being found in even the most remote regions of the globe, like Antarctica.
Most plastics just break up into smaller and smaller particles. British scientists have found microscopic pieces of plastic even inside plankton which is the foundation for the marine food chain.
A Dutch study done in 2004 found on average 30 pieces of plastic in the stomachs of dead Seagulls in the North Sea. The UN has reported more than a million seabirds and 100,000 mammals and sea turtles are killed by the consumption or hazards associated with plastics.
It is estimated between 1997 and 2007 some 500 million computers used in the U.S. alone will have produced a staggering 600,000 tones of toxic waste, much of which is plastic. Perhaps 50-80 percent of this waste will be exported to developing countries. Where it goes from there is any one’s guess, but our oceans might be a good guess.
Disappearing plankton from the waters off of Northern California, Oregon and Washington were thought to have met their end from the lack of ‘upwelling’. (seasonal movement of cold nutrient-rich offshore waters near shores)
Maybe….Mr. Mc Guire: Plastics.
Benjamin: Just how do you mean that, sir?
Labels: Ocean, Ocean Habitat, Plastic, Sewage
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
I want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
She was afraid to go out in the water, but it wasn’t because she had abs of flab.
People in coastal communities across the globe are suffering respiratory illness believed caused by harmful algae and bacteria in our oceans.
Trouble breathing, when too close to the surf, is being reported in Sweden where at the Baltic Sea surf brings dead fish bobbing ashore. People on the southern shores of Maui are paying to have vile smelling piles of algae removed daily from their beaches.
Piles of sludge, larger than human beings, are coagulating on beaches in several areas of the world.
We are tossing raw sewage waste and the pathongens it contains such as cholera, hepatitis B and typhoid into our oceans at an astonishing rate. Canada flushes some 200 billion liters of raw sewage into the ocean annually.
The U.S. banned disposal of sewage sludge and industrial waste into territorial waters in 1991. What happens to that sewage sludge now? The open sea provides limitless opportunities for illegal dumping. We’ll have more on that topic later. (tag: sewage)
Fish, sea mammals and people alike are becoming increasingly ill from hazardous microorganisms growing at an alarming rate in our oceans.
Fishermen from the Chesapeake Bay (CDC.gov) have suffered red, circular skin rashes, memory loss and respiratory tract problems. As far back as 1997 they reported fish with bloody sores, died by the thousands with some fishermen reporting as much as 90% of the catch having visible bloody sores. In what part of the food chain did those fish land?
With hundreds of millions of dollars at risk in the seafood industry, can we expect any agency to be warning us about what we are eating?
Clearly we cannot rely on those we have entrusted with our health and safety. Our only hope is to become proactive.
While the debate rages over what is causing Global Warming, that which is killing our oceans is not open for debate. It’s us.
Labels: Sewage
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
She Wore a Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka-dot Bikini…maybe not!
Monday, May 21, 2007
On the Maiden Voyage of the PSMI blog our minds turned to the romance of ships upon the waters. Like most romance, when examined, there is a reality not always pretty.
It is simply astonishing to consider cruise lines dump more than 160,000 gallons of sewage into our oceans daily. Some 25,000 gallons are toilet sewage. If that doesn’t send chills down your spine while seated at your computer screen, try thinking about that when you are seated at your next seafood repast.
Currently cruise ships are allowed to dump untreated sewage from toilets into waters outside the 3-mile limit. An appetizing thought when one thinks about where commercial fishing takes place. Sewage and dinner are not two words I like to have swimming together in my mind.
Inside the 3-mile limit toilet sewage, if treated first by woefully inadequate marine sewage treatment devices, is still allowed. Good news? Not so fast. Untreated sewage from sinks and showers is still allowed inside the 3-mile limit. Can you say loufa or hock-a-loogey?
Cruising is a wonderful experience. Mankind atop the waters of the world, calling in far off and exotic ports, is the stuff we are made from. Since man was able to tie a few sticks of wood together with twine he has taken to the sea. Our hearts haven’t changed, but our circumstance has.
Cruise ships are not the only culprits when it comes to dumping the unspeakable into our oceans. Corporations and municipalities will not escape our future entries.
We are flushing more than waste into our seas. We are flushing our very existence away and that is the very real, very tragic waste.
Labels: Cruise Ships, Ocean, Sewage, illegal dumping
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Vinnie Isn’t the Only Thing Sleeping with the Fishes
